Intercept is this year’s poster child for what traders have dubbed as momentum stocks. Rallies in names such as Facebook Inc., Netflix Inc. and Tesla have been driven by more than fundamentals, as investors have piled into these stocks and helped push their prices significantly higher. As we highlighted in today’s Morning MoneyBeat, Facebook rose 27% this year through Wednesday’s close, Netflix jumped 22% and Tesla surged 68%.

But Intercept is in a class of its own in 2014.

The stock came back to earth immediately after its parabolic run in early January, but has continued climbing higher in recent weeks. Shares jumped back above $400 on Wednesday for the first time since that massive two-day move early last month. And the rally has continued Thursday, with the stock jumping another 6%.

Shares are up 531% this year, by far the top performing component in the Russell 2000 index of small-capitalization stocks. The second biggest gainer is Furiex Pharmaceuticals, up 132%.

The rally comes after news last month of a clinical trial of the company’s experimental liver-disease therapy being stopped early because patients showed significant improvement.

New York-based Intercept, which has 45 employees and no products on the market, operates out of offices in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. The Nasdaq-listed company hasn’t turned a profit to date. It was founded in 2002 by an Italian professor and an American venture capitalist, and had an initial public offering in 2012.

Intercept sports a market capitalization of $7.8 billion, according to FactSet.